222 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



Mat 



HIGH PRICES. 



Within the memory of every grown up man, 

 eighty dollars was consiJered a high price for a 

 horse that now sells at two hundred, and sixty 

 dollars would buy a likely yoke of six and a half 

 foot oxen, which will now bring a hundred and 

 twenty. A good cow which used to be thought 

 dear at twenty-five dollars, now cannot be bought 

 for less than fifty, and so through all the prices 

 of live stock. Again, the prices current, at re- 

 tail, in all the principal towns of New England, 

 show that butter is worth thirty cents a pound, 

 beef from ten to fifteen, potatoes a dollar a 

 bushel, hay about twenty dollars the ton, and 

 the rest of our products in proportion. These 

 prices are nearly double those of the average 

 prices of the last thirty years, though we are 

 not forgetful of the high prices of 1836 and 7, 

 which, by the way, are readily accounted lor, by 

 the general inflation of the paper currency and 

 credit system, and the speculating mania of those 

 times. 



It concerns the farmer, now, to inquire a little 

 into the causes of the present extraordinary 

 soiling value "of commodities, with a view to de- 

 ciding, if possible, what course is best for him to 

 pursue, in the production of them, for the market. 

 If such prices are to continue, he may well con- 

 sider, whether he may not take such advantage 

 of them, as to turn his labor and his land to 

 better than usual account. We can afford to 

 expend two dollars a ton, beyond our usual 

 amount, to produce our crop of hay, when it 

 may be sold at six or eight above its common 

 price ; and we may hire a little more help in the 

 dairy profitably, when butter is worth thirty 

 oents a pound. 



What causes the present high prices? We 

 will not pretend that we can answer this question 

 with entire satisfaction to ourselves, yet there 

 are facts, within the knowledge of all, which, no 

 doubt, tend to produce this state of afiairs. The 

 war in Europe may be named as one of them. 

 Eighty thousand men, it is said, have already 

 perished on the side of England and France, 

 before Sebastopol. Add to this number, those 

 who have been enrolled in the armies of the 

 allies, above the number of the regular standing 

 armies of those nations, and those who are indi- 

 rectly turned from their accustomed pursuits, to 

 convey troops, carry provisions, attend the sick, 

 and the like, and we have probably an hundred 

 thousand men, in England and France alone, with- 

 drawn from the business of cultivating the earth. 



Add to those an equal number, engaged in the 

 service of Russia, and the vast increase of the 

 armies of Austria, and of most of the European 

 powers, who watch, with drawn swords, in pre- 

 paration for battle, the issue of the pending con- 



test, uncertain when they may be called on to 

 engage in it, and it would not perhaps be an 

 over-estimate to say that a quarter of a million 

 of men are, at the present time, called away from 

 laboring on the earth by the pending war ! 



Again, emigration from Great Britain, and 

 especially from Ireland, has materially lessened 

 the productive force of that nation. Much of 

 this labor has gone to Australia, where it is em- 

 ployed in digging gold, and in the preparation 

 for a new mode of life. Emigration to Kanzas 

 and the West generally, has, in some localities 

 in New England, been so extensive as to lessen 

 the value of farms thus deserted, and the labor 

 of those emigrants, thus interrupted, cannot for 

 some years be applied to the soil so as to return 

 to the markets its former amount of products. 

 The unusual influx of gold into this country and 

 Europe, has doubtless an effect to produce an 

 appare?it increase of prices. We say apparent, 

 because an influx of gold, like an inflation of the 

 paper currency, adds nothing to the real value 

 of property. Its effect is merely to make money 

 less valuable, so that more of it is given for arti- 

 cles of real value, as the products of the earth 

 and of the arts. So far as this cause has operated 

 to raise prices, we can apprehend no sudden 

 change, for the production of gold seems to be 

 already a regular business, as uniform in its re- 

 sults as other pursuits, and will probably so 

 continue. 



There seems to us no immediate prospect of 

 peace among the nations. The labor which 

 should go to feed the hungry and clothe the 

 naked, is desecrated in mutual destruction, and 

 another harvest, at least, must be gathered, be- 

 fore the poor survivors of the battle-fields find 

 their way to their native lands, to renew their 

 accustomed employment ; and many years will 

 pass, before the effect of this awful violation of 

 the beautiful system of Providence, which gives 

 bread for labor, will cease, and the regular laws 

 of demand and supply be again established. 



We believe that the products of the earth must 

 continue to bear a high price, at least through 

 another winter. It becomes the farmer, then, to 

 make his plans, so as to have little to buy, and 

 to make his products large, even at an unusual 

 expense. 



We are no advocates for lavish expenditures, 

 but we believe that the farmer may safely employ 

 more labor than usual this season, and may ju- 

 diciously expend for manure, both of the stable 

 and for guano and superphosphate of lime, and 

 plaster and ashes, more freely than heretofore. 

 He may feel assured that his own labor, skilfully 

 applied to his farm, will be, this season, lil>erally 

 rewarded. 



Let not the farmer be behind other men in 



